AstraZeneca's $1.8 billion acquisition! Why is Cincor just one year on the market?

Mention AstraZeneca's acquisition, and the news of its acquisition of Alexion for a total of $39 billion in rare diseases is still vivid
.
At the beginning of 2023, AstraZeneca is targeting new areas and making acquisitions
again.

On January 9, AstraZeneca announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CinCor Pharma ("CinCor") in a transaction value of approximately US$1.
8 billion
.
Subject to the satisfaction of the M&A transaction conditions, the acquisition is expected to close
in the first quarter of 2023.

The acquisition will strengthen AstraZeneca's pipeline of new drug candidates in the field of heart and kidney diseases by adding
CinCor's drug candidate, baxdrostat (CIN-107).

What kind of biopharmaceutical company is Cincor? How will the company's related products bring to AstraZeneca's layout in the field of cardiovascular and kidney diseases?

1

It has only been on the market for one year

Get market focus with Baxdrostat

Founded in 2018, CinCor is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in the United States focused on developing novel therapies
for refractory and uncontrolled hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

As a developer of targeted therapies for hypertension, CinCor specializes in cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases
.
Currently, the company's main product is the enzyme inhibitor baxdrostat (CIN-107), which is targeted for the treatment of drug-resistant hypertension
.

Baxdrostat is an aldosterone synthase inhibitor (ASI) intended for antihypertensive therapy in refractory hypertension and can directly inhibit aldosterone production
.
baxdrostat selectively targets aldosterone synthase encoded by the CYP11B2 gene, while having a much
lower affinity for blocking activity of 11ß-hydroxylase (the enzyme responsible for cortisol synthesis, encoded by the CYP11B1 gene).

Aldosterone is involved in a wide range of diseases, and as can be seen from Cincor's pipeline distribution, its pipeline basically covers all relevant disease areas
.
In addition, Cincor is advancing pipelines with hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and primary aldosteronism, and the pipeline layout is very comprehensive
.

Since direct inhibition of aldosterone levels is a new direction, aldosterone synthase inhibitors are difficult from the initial selectivity problem to the clinical progress
.
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis and other companies have lost one after another in this research and development process, and the market will inevitably lose confidence
in this class of drugs.
Incor resolutely embarked on this unpromising path and introduced highly selective aldosterone synthase inhibitors, which did find a gap
in clinical demand.

On January 7, 2022, Cincor was listed on NASDAQ in the United States with an offering price of $
16.
It is worth mentioning that in the market downturn last year, Cincor only relied on baxdrostat's only drug, and its stock price rose by 83% in eight months, which made the market that had no expectations look back
again.

Now, exactly one year after going public, Baxdrostat has also made new progress
.
Recently, CinCor announced the top-line results of a phase II trial of HALO evaluating the efficacy and safety
of baxdrostat in patients with refractory hypertension taking up to two blood pressure medications at the maximum tolerated dose.

In the BrigHTNII phase trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, baxdrostat met the primary endpoint, showing a statistically significant decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) after a 12-week treatment period; Phase III trials are scheduled to begin in the first half of 2023 for the treatment of drug-resistant hypertension
.

2

Optimize the adjustment pipeline

The acquisition of Cincor comes at an opportune time

Optimizing and adjusting business pipelines and increasing the number of innovative drug products with higher technology content is undoubtedly the common choice
of many multinational pharmaceutical companies.

In fact, after 2010, AstraZeneca's three pillars of esomeprazole, quetiapine and rosuvastatin have entered the patent cliff period
.
According to statistics, between 2005 and 2015 alone, AstraZeneca spent $34 billion on mergers and acquisitions
.
From 2006 to 2021, AstraZeneca's R&D investment ratio was almost always above
15%.

Previously, AstraZeneca announced its 2022 semi-annual report, at present, AstraZeneca has more than 18 R&D pipelines, focusing on oncology, respiratory and immunology, vaccines and infections, cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic diseases, and rare diseases
.

Baxdrostat is highly selective for aldosterone synthetase and preserves the cortisol pathway in humans, making it a potential first-in-class, next-generation leading ASI
.
This opportunity complements AstraZeneca's strategy to provide additional benefits
in heart and kidney disease.

It is worth mentioning that AstraZeneca sold two heart failure and hypertension drugs to Cheplapharm for $400 million in 2021, namely Atacand and Atacand Plus
.
The two drugs generated $148 million in sales in 70 countries in
2019.
AstraZeneca has publicly stated that the decision to sell drug rights is part of the company's strategy to "manage" its mature drugs so that the proceeds of the sale can be used to reinvest
in the company's core therapies.

In the Chinese market, AstraZeneca China has also carried out a series of structural adjustments
.
In November 2021, AstraZeneca China Cardiovascular & Metabolic Division and Kidney Business Unit were merged into Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism Division
.
At present, the cardiovascular, renal and metabolic business area has become the second largest business segment of AstraZeneca, and there are major products such as ticagrelor (Belinda), rosuvastatin calcium (can be determined), blood lipidcom capsules, dapagliflozin (Andatang), roxadustat (Arrizo) and other major products
.

In the industry's view, AstraZeneca's acquisition of Cincor, which has targeted therapy drugs for hypertension, reveals AstraZeneca's determination
to expand its business segment and enrich its pipeline layout.